Kendall Jenner isn’t fooling around when it comes to this year’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” Met Gala theme. Tonight, the supermodel graced the Metropolitan Museum of Art while wearing an unearthed LBD from one of fashion’s most beloved designers.
While many went with florals for this year’s Met Gala—nodding to the “The Garden Of Time” aspect of the evening’s dress code—Jenner opted to literally “reawaken” a couture masterpiece. She made history, too, as the first person to not only wear this dress, but also a piece from Alexander McQueen’s 1999 couture collection.
The late designer, who served as Givenchy’s creative director from 1996 until 2001, showcased this specific dress, and wider collection, on mannequins instead of models. The collection was never shown on the runway and has been kept in Givenchy’s archives for the past 25 years until now. Given the museum quality of the piece, tailoring was forbidden. Thankfully, Jenner is a supermodel after all and, she says, the dress fit “like a glove.”
Jenner slipped into a plunging beaded gown from McQueen’s fall 1999 couture collection for Givenchy. The model’s dress featured a low-cut corseted bustier and a sculptural neckline that was accented by streamers of gold and black fabric. Following a see-through portion just below Jenner’s waist, the dress then moved into a form-fitting maxi skirt that finished off with a slight train. The couture confection was reportedly designed with over 100,000 black and brass beads which took over 500 hours to hand embroider. Per usual, Jenner kept glam simple in the form of dewy skin, a nude lip, and a half-up, half-down hair style.
“I made a dream list of who I would ideally want to go with, and I would have died to wear something by Alexander McQueen,” Jenner also told Vogue. The model’s stylist, Dani Michelle, added “The House of Givenchy is in a unique transition of creative directors, and the House is opening its privately protected archives for Kendall at the Met. We did a ton of research, specifically on the work of the talented and remembered Alexander McQueen, and Kendall and I both fell in love with this dress. Shockingly, they had it.”